5 Do’s and Don’ts to Beauty Blogging

Hi CapFABBers! It’s Kara, the blogger behind Politics of Pretty and I’m here to share with you five do’s and don’ts when it comes to the business of beauty blogging.

I knew I wanted to start a DC-based beauty blog that covered the latest in new products, beauty trends and profiles of notable Washingtonians and their beauty routines. The majority of my editorial background comes from a bevy of experience writing for lifestyle publications in the DC area. Whether you’ve just started a beauty blog or you want to incorporate more beauty posts in to your lifestyle blog, I like to follow these tips for building an honest and successful brand.

Do reach out every day to new beauty brands. In order to keep your blog content fresh, creative, and most of all, diverse, you need to make sure you are writing about every beauty brand in the market. When you only circle around the same 10 or 15 beauty companies, you’re limiting your brand. I make it a goal to reach out to at least 3-5 new beauty brands a week that I have never written about or worked with before. Go to brand websites and look under their “Contact Us” page. If there’s no address listed for their PR department, send an email to their general inbox. The email is as simple as introducing yourself, your blog and expressing an interest in collaborating or being added to their media list.

Do incorporate your brand (and your voice!) into your social media properties. Your blog is your brand and your social media outlets should be mini platforms for your brand. Use Instagram to post cool and pretty beauty photos for a behind the scenes look and to entice your readers to visit your blog. Use Twitter to engage with your followers and let your readers know about beauty sales, new products and other beauty news. You want to be seen as an authority in your topic. Incorporate the voice from your blog into your social media outlets and engage with your followers and naturally, more followers will come. 

Don’t limit your blog to just beauty product reviews. In fact, I rarely read beauty product reviews. That’s what the forums on Sephora.com are for. Every once and a while, it’s good to sprinkle in those types of “evergreen” posts (something that has no time limit) for an interesting point of view, but think of new and creative ways to incorporate beauty into other types of posts. Pick a beauty trend that you’re loving and do a post on ways to get the look, or pick a trend and use product pulls for visuals. Do a Q&A or feature on someone that’s a great beauty trendsetter.

Do connect with the beauty blogging community. Read, comment and connect with other beauty bloggers. This is not only beneficial for your blog, but this will help you keep track of what other bloggers are writing about and what brands they’re working with. Connecting with other beauty bloggers has led to building a better readership for my blog and new beauty brands I can work with.

Don’t write negative posts. This will always spark a debate, but the question at hand is this: when it comes to beauty blogging, if you test a product that you don’t like, do you write a bad review? To each their own, but as a reader, I would rather see honest reviews than false advertising. Although, if you’re working with a beauty brand and they are the reason you’re testing this product (i.e. they gifted you with the product), you don’t want to ruin a working relationship. In my experience thus far, if I test a product that was sent me by a beauty brand, I’ll opt to not write about it at all. But you also have to keep in mind that what you may not like may be better fit for your readers.

Kara Manos writes about all things beauty in the District on her blog, Politics of Pretty.